State briefs

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, July 7, 2001

Hare Krishna members oppose McDonald's site

DALLAS -- Members of a Hare Krishna temple, who don't eat meat, are at odds about a proposed site of a McDonald's in their neighborhood.

Members of the temple, fighting plans for the East Dallas drive-through restaurant, argue that it would bring noise, trash, traffic and the smell of meat to their quiet neighborhood.

"We just really feel offended that McDonald's is planning to come here. A big part of our religion is vegetarianism; it's one of our main beliefs," temple member Mike Meyer told The Dallas Morning News. "It's like an in-your-face type of thing."

Investigators say the Longview couple handcuffed the then-8-year-old girl to a door with thumbtacks attached to it, poked the girl's feet with needles and made the child eat cat feces Sept. 10.

Third bundle of cocaine found by pair on beach

CORPUS CHRISTI -- A 5-pound bundle of cocaine washed up on an Aransas County beach Friday, the third such bundle to wash up in the same area in two months.

A couple fishing in the area found the tightly wrapped bundle near Cedar Bayou, which is between San Jose and Matagorda islands, police said. Police valued the drugs at $40,000.

In May, two San Antonio fishermen discovered five watertight bundles of cocaine weighing a combined 22 pounds and worth about $200,000 in the same area. Campers found two more bundles of cocaine on the same section of beach the same evening.

Investigators suspect the bundles either were tossed in the water by a scared smuggler or dropped from a plane and intended to be picked up by a boat.